Chapter 226: All rumors are bad.
~Ava's POV~
I stood up from the garden table and walked away from Gwen. My hands were shaking with anger and hurt.
"I killed her brother, so she wants revenge," I muttered under my breath, repeating Gwen's cold words. "I killed her brother, so she wants revenge."
I kept walking through the palace halls, but her voice wouldn't leave my head.
"Does that answer my question?" I said to myself, getting more upset. "Does that answer my question? How is that an answer?"
I felt so offended by how she treated me. We are friends. We tell each other everything. But now she acting like I was bothering her just by sitting at her table.
And what kind of answer was that? "I killed her brother, so she wants revenge." That didn't tell me anything useful. It didn't help me protect my kingdom or my people.
I walked faster through the stone corridors, my footsteps echoing.
"Does that answer my question?" I kept saying. "Does that even make sense?"
My mind was spinning with frustration. And that reminded me of something else that had been bothering me.
The dreams. For the past three days, I had been having the strangest dreams. Dreams that felt too real to be just dreams. Dreams that woke me up in the middle of the night, sweating and confused.
In these dreams, I saw a girl who looked exactly like me. But not exactly like me.
She had my face, my nose, my eyes, my height. Everything about her was identical to me. But there was one big difference that made my stomach feel sick every time I saw her.
She had black hair.
Not silver hair like mine. Not the beautiful silver hair that ran in Mesodomica people. Black hair has never been seen in Mesodomica. It's very rare.
Every night for three days, this girl had appeared in my dreams. She would stand in front of me, looking at me with eyes that were exactly like mine. But her black hair made her look like some kind of twisted version of me.
It scared me more than I wanted to admit.
In my family, everyone had silver hair. My mother had silver hair. My grandmother had silver hair. All my ancestors had silver hair. It was part of who we were.
So who was this girl with black hair who looked exactly like me?
I needed answers. And I knew only one person who might be able to help me understand what these dreams meant.
I walked through the castle until I reached Haggar's chambers. I knocked on her door.
"Come in," her voice called from inside.
I opened the door and stepped into her room. It smelled like herbs. Candles shone on small tables.
"Ava," Haggar said, looking up from a book she was reading. "What brings you here?"
"I need to ask you something," I said. "Can you summon my grandmother Lorraine? I need to speak with her."
Haggar closed her book and looked at me with serious eyes.
"Child," she said gently, "Lorraine cannot be summoned. She is not a servant who comes when called. She will come back when she decides the time is right."
My heart sank. I really needed to talk to my grandmother about these dreams.
"But surely there's a way," I said. "Some kind of magic or spell?"
"No," Haggar said firmly. "Lorraine does what Lorraine wants to do. She always has. That's just who she is."
I felt disappointed and frustrated. But before I could leave, Haggar spoke again.
"Is there something bothering you that you want to talk about?" she asked. "You look troubled."
I hesitated for a moment. Then I decided to tell her about the dreams.
"Yes," I said. "There is something."
I sat down in the chair across from her and took a deep breath.
"I've been having dreams for the past three days," I said. "Ever since Seraphine appeared. Strange dreams that feel too real."
"Tell me about them," Haggar said, leaning forward.
"I see a girl in these dreams," I explained. "She looks exactly like me. Same face, same eyes, same everything. But she has black hair instead of silver hair."
Haggar's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't say anything.
"It's impossible," I continued. "No one in my family has ever had black hair. We've always had silver hair. It's part of who we are. So who is this girl? Why does she look like me? Why am I dreaming about her?"
Haggar was quiet for a long moment. She stared at me with thoughtful eyes.
"These dreams," she finally said, "it's not my place to explain them to you."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"The answers you seek," Haggar said carefully, "they should come from Lorraine. Not from me. Some things are not mine to tell."
I felt frustrated again. "But you must know something. You understand magic and dreams."
"I know many things," Haggar admitted. "But this is something that Lorraine should explain to you herself. All I can tell you is that you should not look too far for the answers you're seeking."
"What does that mean?"
"Sometimes the answers are closer than we think," Haggar said. "Sometimes what we're looking for is right in front of us."
I didn't understand what she meant, but I could tell she wasn't going to explain more about the dreams.
"There's something else," I said. "Gwen. She's been so cold and distant. She barely talks to her own children. What's wrong with her?"
Haggar's expression softened.
"Gwen will come around," she said gently. "Right now, she's trying to arrange her past memories with her current self. Her past life as Arabelle is mixing with her life as Gwen. It's confusing for her. That's why she seems distant."
"How long will it take?" I asked.
"I don't know," Haggar admitted. "But you shouldn't let it bother you too much. And you shouldn't let the gods bother you either."
I nodded, but I still felt worried about everything.
Just then, Haggar looked at me with curious eyes.
"Have you heard the rumors going around outside the palace?" she asked.
"No," I said. "What rumors?"
Haggar smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was the kind of smile that meant trouble.
"You should send Captain Cassius and the two others outside the palace," she said. "Tell them to go and see what's happening out there. They can come back and give you information about what the people are saying."
"What kind of rumors?" I asked, feeling worried.
"The kind that can destroy a kingdom if they're not stopped," Haggar said seriously. "The kind that turn people against their queen."
My stomach dropped. More problems. As if I didn't have enough to worry about already.
"Send your men out today," Haggar continued. "Find out what's being said. Find out who's saying it. And find out how far these rumors have spread."
"Are they bad?" I asked.
"All rumors are bad when they're about the person in charge," Haggar said. "But some are worse than others. You need to know what you're dealing with."
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